Mihriban Karaayvaz

Exploring the Role of miRNAs in Human Cancer Mihriban Karaayvaz

Unraveling the role of microRNAs in cancer has gained growing interest in the last few years. In this study, we identified miR-215 as a potential prognostic biomarker and miR-129 as a potential tumor suppressor and a novel therapeutic target in colorectal cancer. We showed that miR-215 levels were significantly decreased in tumors compared with corresponding normal tissues in patients diagnosed with stage II or stage III colorectal cancer. Furthermore, we described a novel mechanism mediated by miR-129 to trigger apoptosis by suppressing a key anti-apoptotic protein, BCL2. The expression of miR-129 was significantly and progressively down regulated in colorectal cancer tissue specimens compared with the adenomas and normal control samples. More importantly, we demonstrated that miR-129 increased the cytotoxic effect of 5- fluorouracil, in vitro and in vivo. We expect that our findings will provide a better insight into the role of microRNAs in cancer and will allow us to carry these molecules into clinical application.